Pager with built-in printer

ABSTRACT

A digital pager has a built-in printer to enable the printing of a text message and/or a graphic image upon a page as the pager housing traverses the page. The pager can be maintained compact and lightweight as no paper storage or paper feed mechanism need be provided.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a 371 of PCT/AU03/00145 filed on Feb. 12,2003.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The following invention relates to pager technology. More particularly,though not exclusively, the invention relates to a pager having abuilt-in printer. Such a printer might be a drop-on-demand inkjetprinter utilizing a fixed printhead system.

BACKGROUND

Known pagers have a display panel upon which messages are displayed.However, no means of conveniently producing a print-out of the messageis heretofore known.

The mere incorporation into a pager housing of a known printer devicewould not result in a compact, easily portable pager. This is becauseprior art printers incorporate a supply of print media and employ aprint media feed mechanism to transport the print media past theprintheads to effect printing onto the print media. Such known printers,having a supply of print media, are large and heavier than would bedesirable in a portable pager.

CO-PENDING APPLICATIONS

Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present inventionare disclosed in the following co-pending applications filed by theapplicant or assignee of the present invention simultaneously with thepresent application:

PCT/AU03/00154 PCT/AU03/00151 PCT/AU03/00150 PCT/AU03/00145PCT/AU03/00153 PCT/AU03/00152 PCT/AU03/00168 PCT/AU03/00169PCT/AU03/00170 PCT/AU03/00162 PCT/AU03/00146 PCT/AU03/00159PCT/AU03/00171 PCT/AU03/00149 PCT/AU03/00167 PCT/AU03/00158PCT/AU03/00147 PCT/AU03/00166 PCT/AU03/00164 PCT/AU03/00163PCT/AU03/00165 PCT/AU03/00160 PCT/AU03/00157 PCT/AU03/00148PCT/AU03/00156 PCT/AU03/00155

The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated hereinby cross-reference.

RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS AND PATENTS 6,566,858 6,331,946 6,246,9706,442,525 PCT/AU01/00141 09/505,951 PCT/AU01/00139 6,816,968 6,757,832PCT/AU01/00140 PCT/AU00/00741 6,238,044 PCT/AU00/00742 6,425,6616,227,652 6,213,588 6,213,589 6,231,163 6,247,795 6,394,581 6,244,6916,257,704 6,416,168 6,220,694 6,257,705 6,247,794 6,234,610 6,247,7936,264,306 6,241,342 6,247,792 6,264,307 6,254,220 6,234,611 6,302,5286,283,582 6,239,821 6,338,547 6,247,796 6,557,977 6,390,603 6,362,8436,293,653 6,312,107 6,227,653 6,234,609 6,238,040 6,188,415 6,227,6546,209,989 6,247,791 6,336,710 6,217,153 6,416,167 6,243,113 6,283,5816,247,790 6,260,953 6,267,469 6,273,544 6,309,048 6,420,196 6,443,5586,439,689 6,378,989 6,848,181 6,634,735 PCT/AU98/00550 PCT/AU00/000956,390,605 6,322,195 6,612,110 6,480,089 6,460,778 6,305,788PCT/AU00/00172 6,426,014 PCT/AU00/00338 6,364,453 PCT/AU00/003396,457,795 PCT/AU00/00581 6,315,399 PCT/AU00/00580 6,338,548PCT/AU00/00582 6,540,319 PCT/AU00/00587 6,328,431 PCT/AU00/005886,328,425 PCT/AU00/00589 6,991,320 PCT/AU00/00341 6,595,624PCT/AU00/00340 PCT/AU00/00749 6,417,757 PCT/AU01/01332 7,095,309PCT/AU01/01318 6,854,825 PCT/AU00/00750 7,075,677 PCT/AU00/007516,428,139 PCT/AU00/00752 6,575,549 PCT/AU01/00502 PCT/AU00/005836,383,833 PCT/AU02/01120 PCT/AU00/00593 6,464,332 PCT/AU00/00333PCT/AU00/01513 6,428,142 PCT/AU00/00590 6,390,591 PCT/AU00/005917,018,016 PCT/AU00/00592 6,328,417 PCT/AU00/00584 6,322,194PCT/AU00/00585 6,382,779 PCT/AU00/00586 6,629,745 PCT/AU00/015146,565,193 PCT/AU00/01515 6,609,786 PCT/AU00/01516 6,609,787PCT/AU00/01517 6,439,908 PCT/AU00/01512 6,684,503 PCT/AU00/007536,755,513 PCT/AU00/00594 6,409,323 PCT/AU00/00595 6,281,912PCT/AU00/00596 6,604,810 PCT/AU00/00597 6,318,920 PCT/AU00/005986,488,422 PCT/AU01/01321 6,655,786 PCT/AU01/01322 6,457,810PCT/AU01/01323 6,485,135 PCT/AU00/00516 6,795,215 PCT/AU00/005177,154,638 PCT/AU00/00511 6,859,289 PCT/AU00/00754 6,977,751PCT/AU00/00755 6,398,332 PCT/AU00/00756 6,394,573 PCT/AU00/007576,622,923

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

According to one aspect of the present invention there is disclosed apager comprising:

a housing;

a digital storage device adapted to store one or both of text and imagedata received by the pager;

a printer located within the housing and configured to:

-   (a) receive digital information from the digital storage device; and-   (b) print one or both of text and an image on print media external    to the printer as the housing traverses said print media.

Preferably, the pager further comprises an antenna via which one or bothof said text data and said image data is received.

Preferably, said printer comprises a drop-on-demand color inkjetprinthead.

Preferably, the housing has located therein a replaceable ink cartridgecommunicating with the printhead.

Preferably, the pager has located within the housing a speed sensorincluding an optical encoder wheel adapted to contact the print mediaand to rotate as the housing traverses the print media, said opticalencoder wheel including a series of circumferential spaced markingsthereon, the speed sensor further including an optical sensor fordetecting the markings as said markings pass the optical sensor duringrotation of the optical encoder wheel.

Preferably, the circumferential spacing between successive markings onthe optical encoder wheel is substantially equal to the spacing betweensuccessive print lines in at least one of the text and the image beingprinted by the printhead.

Preferably, detection of a marking on said encoder wheel by the opticalsensor triggers the printing of a next line of one or both of text dataand image data.

Preferably, the pager further includes a power supply located withinsaid housing. More preferably, the power supply includes a batteryremovable from the pager.

Preferably, the pager further comprises a display screen adapted todisplay one or both of the text and the image.

Preferably, the pager further comprises user operable buttons forcontrolling said printer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A preferred form of the present invention will now be described by wayof example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective illustration of a pager having abuilt-in printer, in use traversing a page to print an image thereon;

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a pager;

FIG. 3 is a schematic inverted perspective view of the pager of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a schematic exploded perspective view of the pager of FIGS. 2and 3;

FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view of the pager;

FIG. 6 is a schematic side elevational view of the pager;

FIG. 7 is a schematic front elevational view of the pager;

FIG. 8 is a schematic inverted plan view of the pager; and

FIG. 9 is a schematic perspective view of the pager with a back coverremoved.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings there is schematically depicted apager 10 having a built-in printer, having almost completely traversed apage of print media 12 to print an image 11 thereon. The pager 10 is ahand-held device that is sized and shaped to fit easily within thepocket or purse, for example, of a user.

As shown in FIG. 2, the housing of pager 10 includes a plastics topmolding 13 and a base molding 14. The top molding 13 has a displaywindow 23, a pair of scroll buttons 21, a YES/GO button 15 and a NO/STOPbutton 16.

At the bottom edge of the housing of the pager 10 there is provided anoptical encoder wheel 18, an idler wheel 20 and a printhead 19therebetween. Operation of the printhead, the optical encoder wheel andassociated internal componentry can be found in our co-pendingapplication Ser. No. 10/503,900 entitled “Manually OperablePrinter-Scanner”. Although the printing mechanism utilized in thepresent invention might be identical to that disclosed in the co-pendingapplication Ser. No. 10/503,900, other forms of small, lightweightprinters (yet to be developed) that can print on print media external tothe pager housing 10 can be employed.

As shown in FIG. 3, the base molding 14 has associated therewith abattery/ink cartridge cover molding 17. This would typically residealongside the printhead 11 as shown.

An exploded perspective view of the pager is shown in FIG. 4. Beneaththe top molding 13, there is provided an elastomeric button molding 22to cover the electrical switches of the scroll buttons 21, the YES/GObutton 15 and the NO/STOP button 16.

Situated beneath the display window 23, there is provided a liquidcrystal display (LCD) 24. LCD 24 is attached to a printed circuit board25 behind which there is located electronics 29. Power to the printedcircuit board 25 and LCD 24 is from a battery 30 via battery contacts28. Battery 30 might typically be an AAA sized battery. The batterymight typically be rechargeable.

Also located within the pager housing and associated with the printhead9 is a flexible printed circuit board 27 which contacts with the printedcircuit board 25 to provide control signals and power to the printhead19.

Also associated with the printhead 19 is an ink connector 26 to receiveink from an ink cartridge 32. A question/answer (QA) chip 31 on the inkcartridge 32 makes contact with the underside of ink connector 26 toindicate that the cartridge is present If the cartridge is absent, adisplay warning might be sent to the LCD 24.

Details of the electronics 29 can be better seen in FIG. 9. That is,attached to the underside of PCB 25 is a printer chip 35 serving to thecontrol the operation of the printhead 19 and perhaps to store digitalimage data to be printed. However, the digital data might be stored onanother chip or chips or might be stored on a memory card or otherstorage unit. The flex PCB 27 is shown attached to PCB 25 in thisfigure. A coin battery 36 such as a lithium ion battery is also attachedto the PCB 25. This might serve to maintain any memory data when themain battery 30 is removed or drained. An antenna 37 associated with thepager unit is also depicted. Also associated with the pager unit is avibrating magnet 33 and a speaker 34. Features 33, 34 and 37 will not bedescribed in detail as they can be standard pager components.

In use, the pager unit receives messages via the antenna 37 whereuponthe speaker 34 makes a tone and/or the vibrating magnet 33 vibrates thepager to indicate that a message has been received. The message can beviewed through the display window 23 upon manipulation of buttons 21.Software controlling the LCD can display a print option whereupon theYES/GO button 15 can be depressed to initiate a printing mode, or theNO/STOP button 16 can be pressed if a print-out is not required.

Apart from text messages, the pager might receive a graphic image. Textand/or a graphic image can be printed upon the sheet of print media 12by grasping the pager unit 10 and rolling it across the page withoptical encoder wheel 18 and idler wheel 20 in contact therewith. Whenthe unit is drawn across the page, the printhead 19 deposits droplets ofink upon the page to produce the image 11. The image 11 can bemonochrome or color, depending on the type of printhead employed and theconfiguration of the ink cartridge and ink delivery means. For colorprinting, multiple-color inks can be employed and the printhead ofcross-referenced application Ser. No. 10/503,900 can be employed.

1. A pager comprising: a housing; a digital storage device adapted tostore one or both of text and image data received by the pager via radiocommunication; a printer located within the housing and configured to:(a) receive digital information from the digital storage device; and (b)print one or both of text and an image on print media external to theprinter as the pager is moved over said print media by a user; and (c)engage with a replaceable ink cartridge; and a replaceable power supplyfor powering the digital storage device and printer, wherein the housingcomprises a removable cover for access to both said replaceable powersupply and ink cartridge.
 2. The pager of claim 1 further comprising anantenna via which one or both of said text data and said image data isreceived.
 3. The pager of claim 1 wherein said printer comprises adrop-on-demand color inkjet printhead.
 4. The pager of claim 3 whereinthe replaceable ink cartridge has a chip for communicating the presenceof the ink cartridge in the housing with the printhead.
 5. The pager ofclaim 1 wherein the power supply includes a battery removable from thepager.
 6. The pager according to claim 1 further comprising a displayscreen adapted to display one or both of the text and the image.
 7. Thepager according to claim 1 further comprising user operable buttons forcontrolling said printer.